All About Vietnam

Free heart disease, uterine cancer check-ups for poor people

The Sponsorship Association for Poor Patients provided free heart disease check-ups for disadvantaged children and uterine cancer screening tests for poor women in Quang Binh province on August 25.

The tests gave those poor people a chance to receive accurate diagnoses without the hassle or expenditure of going to central-level hospitals.

Those found to have serious symptoms will be offered free operations.

The activity, jointly conducted by the Da Nang General Hospital, Vina Capital Foundation and the provincial Centre for Reproductive Health Care, has been implemented by the province’s Sponsorship Association for 10 years.

Over the last decade, they have mobilised more than 14 billion VND to conduct cataract surgeries for 3,000 patients and support 200 heart disease patients.

As many as 500 wheelchairs were also provided for disabled people in the province.

Danang Cancer Hospital to open soon Hai Dang By Hai Dang - The Saigon Times Daily DANANG – Danang City’s Sponsorship Association for Underprivileged Women and Children last week received financial assistance from organizations and individuals for the Danang Cancer Hospital that has been built thanks to the contributions of donors nationwide. The sponsors are seven companies in the areas of banking, trade, textile and taxi transport and others in Danang, HCMC and Hanoi. They not only donated a combined VND3.5 billion in cash but also provided other useful items such as ambulances, medical beds, televisions and refrigerators. Specially, the chairman and general director of Vietnam-South Korea Medicine Joint Venture was also present at the ceremony last Thursday to hand over cash and to witness the hospital under progress for completion. The hospital will help diagnose diseases for residents in the central region for timely treatment, said Nguyen Thi Van Lan, vice chairwomen of the sponsorship association. The non-profit hospital offers fee reduction and exemption for needy cancer patients along with many other facilities set aside for the poor. With such a humanitarian purpose, the hospital has attracted strong attention from local public and international friends.... [read more]

The tests gave needy people an opportunity to receive an accurate diagnosis without the added expense of going to central-level hospitals. Those diagnosed to have serious symptoms are going to be offered free operations. The activity, jointly conducted by the Da Nang General Hospital, Vina Capital Foundation and the provincial Centre for Reproductive Health Care, has been operated by the province's Sponsorship Association for the past ten years. Over the last decade, they have provided more than VND14 billion to perform cataract surgeries for over 3,000 patients and support for over 200 patients with heart disease. As many as 500 wheelchairs were also provided for disabled people in the province. (Source: VNA)... [read more]

The Ministry of Education and Training and its agencies around the country will launch the 2012 Traffic Safety campaign at schools next month. The campaign will include popularisation of traffic culture to improve safety and encourage young people to comply with traffic laws to reduce accidents and traffic jams, especially in Ha Noi and HCM City. Nhan Dan (The People) Soc Trang Association for Poor raises $3m The Sponsorship Association for the Poor in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang has collected more than VND65 billion (US$3 million) from donors at home and abroad so far this year, a meeting held to review the activities of the association on Monday heard. This year the association has funded free eyes surgeries for 3,096 poor people and heart surgeries for 105 others in several provinces including An Giang and Lam Dong. It has also built more than 100 charity houses, many schools, and concrete bridges in rural areas in the Mekong Delta provinces of Tra Vinh and Vinh Long. Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) Poultry company receives Labour Order HCM City-based Ba Huan Clean Egg Company and its director Pham Thi Huan were on Monday conferred the Labour Order, respectively Third Class and Second Class, by the President for their achievements during the last 10 years. Ba Huan, one of the country's main egg suppliers, sells its products at all markets and supermarkets in HCM City and provinces around the country. Lao Dong ( Labour) HCM City youth join tree-planting…... [read more]

PANO - 35 residents of Yen Tap mountainous commune, Cam Khe district (Phu Tho) have attended a job training course organised by the Sponsorship Association for Disabled People and Orphans of Vietnam. Participants were trained to make handicraft products made of simple material such as bamboo, wood. Products made by locals are purchased by Can Lieu Ltd. Co at VND 5,000 each. Graduates are admitted to the company after three months of training. Translated by Hoang Anh... [read more]

The Japanese Business Association of Ho Chi Minh City (JBAH) has offered the Ho Chi Minh City Sponsorship Association for Poor Patients US$38,000, which was collected from a charity fair held by JBAH. The sponsorship association gave the money to Children Hospital No 1, Children Hospital No 2, Hospital of Trauma and Orthopaedics and Teeth-Jaw-Face Hospital to provide treatment for burns, eye surgery, back-bone sequalae and poor children's harelip and cleft palate. In the past 10 years, JBHA has donated USD265,000 collected from charity fairs to the association, bringing smiles to thousands of handicapped children.... [read more]

A report on the progress of the country’s implementation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2008 released on June 2 noted that the maternal mortality ratio is expected to drop to 0.58 per thousand by 2015. According to the report, thanks to the implementation of many projects and programmes relating to maternal health such as safe motherhood and the national strategy on reproductive health for 2001-2010, maternal health has improved to cut the death rate. Research conducted by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that the ratio was 2.33 per thousand in 1990 and 1.60 per thousand in 1995 and fell by halve in 2005 to 0.80 per thousand. The country is making a lot of efforts to further reduce the ratio to 60/100,000 (0.60 per thousand) by 2010 with a focus on disadvantaged and mountainous areas. The report emphasised that Vietnam’s under-five mortality rate dropped to 25.9 per thousand in 2007. If this progress is maintained, the country is sure to achieve the goal of reducing the mortality rate in children under five by two thirds during the 1990-2015 period from 58 per thousand to 19.3 per thousand, the report said. One of the main reasons for such progress is a reduction in the malnourishment rate among children under fives. In 2007, the rate was 21.2 percent, down 2.2 percent compared to 2006. However, the report also mentioned the challenges Vietnam is facing such as a big gap in the provision…... [read more]

The project started in Vietnam in 2001 with the participation of the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and the Hue Medical and Pharmaceutical University. It was implemented with technical assistance from the JHPIEGO, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, the University of California, and foreign and non-governmental organisations-most notably, Pathfinder International. At a seminar to review the project held in Da Nang from July 22 to 23, representatives from MoH, local Health Departments, and eight of ten medical universities across the country, along with foreign experts, shared experiences from the project and discussed new directions for medical training in Vietnam . During the period of eight years, the project has trained 235 doctors in advanced reproductive clinical skills and 455 lecturers in teaching methods, as well as providing facilities and setting up reproductive health establishments. It also assisted in the creation of syllabuses on reproductive health for students at the targeted universities. The project has helped to build a training programme on reproductive health for application across the country.... [read more]

This was highlighted at a seminar on policies on population and health care for mothers and children being held by the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs in Hanoi on July 30-31. The seminar listed a number of challenges, including the gap in fertility rates between the regions, the gender imbalance in new births, the high abortion rate, and the high malnutrition rate among children in mountainous, remote and isolated areas. Tran Thi Van, assistant to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Chief Representative to Vietnam, said that the country has reached 15 out of 21 priority targets laid out in its national strategy on population for the 2001-2010 period. According to her, the country’s fertility rate has fallen to below replacement level, and the use of contraception has increased to 68.8 percent. At the same time, the past ten years have seen a sharp decrease in deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as malnutrition amongst children. She underlined the priorities for population issues, including the development of social, educational and health care services, finding solutions to internal migration and urbanisation-related issues and providing social better services for the increasing population in urban areas. She also stressed the need to take advantage of opportunities provided by the “golden population structure” period, where the working-age population out-number the dependants, as well as correct the gender imbalance among births, and improve reproductive health care services. Duong Quoc Trong, Acting General Director of the General Department on Population and Family Planning, shared…... [read more]

Speaking at a conference in Quang Ninh province on November 27, Deputy Minister Thuy said that the network to provide reproductive health care services has been extended widely to grassroots level, which has helped improve the quality of the Vietnamese population. This can be seen in the percentages of fatalities among pregnant women and children under one year of age, which had gone down considerably in the 2000-2008 period, Thuy added. However, he warned that the country would face many difficulties in the coming time including high population density, gender inequality and low population quality. Participants to the conference also dealt with some challenges in population and family planning work including the shortage of skilled labourers and a rise in the number of mentally retarded people. Vietnam’s Human Development Index remains at the average level globally, and ranks 116/174 on the average lifespan for a strong person.... [read more]

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen informed the participants including representatives from medical universities in Belgium and the Netherlands, plus the three target nations, of Vietnam’s millennium goals to reduce the mortality rate of mothers by three-quarters by 2015 and new HIV cases by one quarter. The country has also targeted a larger number of deliveries with assistance from skilled midwives. They are also the goals of the HESVIC project, which aims to improve reproductive health care in the three populous Asian nations, who all record high mother mortality rates, Xuyen said. She emphasized that research conducted in the three target countries would serve as the basis for developing medical systems for mothers in developing countries, which are short of staff and adequate policies. VNA... [read more]